Not warmer climes, but to easier and short turn around times to production.

" Alaska, like Canada’s oil sands and the North Sea, is receding into a second-tier oil province as field depletion, cost-cutting and the rise of shale diminish the appeal of those resources. "

" The state’s oil output has slumped from its heyday in the late 1980s as discoveries dried up and major producers sought easier-to-produce crude elsewhere, most recently from shale rock in Texas. Hilcorp, along with ConocoPhillips, is one of the few big oil companies still interested in investing fresh capital in the state, which is home to protected ecosystems. "

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What Bloomberg Intelligence Says

The deal “is logical and should be well received, given its indebted balance sheet exceeds the guidance range. The move is also consistent with the company’s long-term strategic shift toward shale and gas/LNG exposure from legacy conventional oil.”"

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I suppose BP is going to get attacked by "shale deniers"

Here is another tid bit about BP and shale

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South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup: BP makes Eagle Ford debut under new name

The U.S. arm of British oil and gas giant BP PLC submitted its first applications to drill in the Eagle Ford Shale since completing a $10.5 billion deal to acquire acreage in South Texas and other parts of the U.S.

BPX Operating Co., based in Denver, received approval from the Railroad Commission of Texas last week to drill seven new oil or gas wells about 2.5 miles northwest of Helena in Karnes County. It's the first time BPX has appeared on the drilling permit roundup or submitted an application in Texas.

Prior to October 2018, the company's American subsidiary operated under a different name. The company was renamed as the $10.5 billion purchase of about 470,000 acres in Texas and Louisiana that previously belonged to Australian company BHP Group Ltd. (NYSE: BHP) was finalized. Among those were 194,000 acres in the Eagle Ford Shale already producing an average of 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 1,400 drilling sites.

Prior to last year's purchase and renaming, BP (NYSE: BP) filed for drilling permits in Texas under at least three other names. While those subsidiaries collectively filed more than 1,700 drilling permit applications dating back to 1981, none of them, prior to last week's applications, were in Eagle Ford counties.

South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup

The South Texas Drilling Permit Roundup is a weekly review of new drilling permit applications filed with the Railroad Commission of Texas for a 67-county area of South Texas. For the full drilling data table, see below.

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Drilling Down: Exxon Mobil shows no sign of cooling off in Permian Basin

The dog days of summer are the hottest and Exxon Mobil is showing no signs of cooling off any time soon.

Exxon Mobil’s shale drilling arm XTO Energy is preparing for another round of drilling in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The company is seeking permission from the Railroad Commission of Texas to drill 20 horizontal wells split between Glasscock, Pecos and Midland counties.

Exxon Mobil has become the top driller in the state. So far this year, Exxon Mobil has filed for 500 drilling permits this year, compared to the 332 drilling permits EOG Resources of Houston, the second most active driller. More than 430 of Exxon’s permits are for projects in the Permian Basin.

We like to talk about the ongoing strength of the U.S. shale revolution – and that’s intentional because, like most Americans, we think continued leadership in producing natural gas and oil is a big deal.

This week the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) underscored America’s energy influence, reporting that last year the U.S. led the world in natural gas and oil production, which it has done since 2014.

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While $5.6 billion is a hefty sum, it’s less than 4 times the annual cash flow of the assets acquired, meaning that Hilcorp will likely make that money back in a hurry. Even if Alaskan oil wells do continue to decline, however, (as they very likely will), they will decline at a much slower rate than the shale wells that investors have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into in recent years. By comparison, $5.6 billion is a trifling sum, and its money that’s all but guaranteed to secure a return on Hilcorp’s investment.

Shale wells are attractive thanks to their gushing volumes of oil at the very beginning of production, but they decline extremely rapidly, leading to slowdowns like the one we’re currently witnessing in the Permian Basin. “Shale wells lose as much as 70 percent of their production in the first year, meaning that explorers have to constantly pour money into more drilling just to maintain production,” reports Bloomberg. “By contrast, once up and running, conventional wells lose as little as 5 percent each year, providing a much more solid production outlook.”